In 1983, he pursued a course in economics at the Universiti Malaya. During this period, he was also elected as the president of the university's Muslim Students Association. In 1986, he obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Leeds and in 1989 he obtained a postgraduate diploma in International Relations from the Uppsala University in Sweden. That same year, he was appointed the Secretary of the Malaysian Social Science Association (PSSM).

Ahmad Shabery left UMNO in 1989 to join other members rebelling against the then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the newly formed breakaway Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (S46), until its dissolution in 1996 where he rejoined UMNO again.

In 2004, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Kemaman, defeating incumbent Abd Rahman Yusof of the People's Justice Party (PKR) by 15,882 votes. In 2008, he retained the seat after beating PKR's Fariz Musa by 12,682 votes, and won again in 2013, defeating Kamaruddin Chik (PKR) by 12,306 votes. But in the 2018 general election, he lost the parliamentary seat.

On 15 July 2008, Ahmad Shabery Cheek participated in a historic debate on the national fuel price with the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, which was televised live.[3]

In April 2009, the new Prime Minister Najib Razak appointed him as the Minister for Youth and Sports.[4] After the 13th General Election, he was appointed as Minister of Communication and Multimedia.[5]

In 2015, he was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry in a cabinet reshuffle. When he and BN lost in the 2018 general election, he was replaced by Salahuddin Ayub from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) new government.